Unit heating and ventilating apparatus



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\xi UHUHHHHUHHHHUUHHBHU Feb. 19, 1957 o. A. LABUS UNIT HEATING AND VENTILATING APPARATUS Filed Jan. 28, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS OTTO A. LABUS A44 f M J vm 8 a w h H J w||||| Fu l7 moi h K A A A k United States Patent UNIT HEATING AND VENTILATIN G APPARATUS Otto A. Labus, La Crosse, Wis., assignor to The Trane Company, La Crosse, Wis.

Application January 28, 1953, Serial No. 333,649

3 Claims. (Cl. 98-38) The present invention relates to heating and ventilating apparatus located in the space which it serves. The apparatus is in the form of a unit normally installed at the inside of an outside wall of the building. The unit has means for heating air and dampers for varying the amounts of outdoor air and recirculated air handled by the unit. Such units are old and well known in the prior art and they have control mechanisms for controlling the flow of heating fluid and the amounts of outdoor and recirculated air handled.

Although such units have proved satisfactory in use, it has been found that a current of cold air descends along the wall or window adjacent each end of the unit. This cold air strikes the legs of occupants near the wall and causes discomfort to such occupants. In order to prevent this downward movement of cold air, I have provided an upwardly dis-charged stream of air along a considerable length of wall or window at eachend of the unit.

It is a principal object of this invention to provide means for discharging air upwardly along a considerable length of the wall at which it is mounted.

It is another object of this invention to provide a unit with air outlets in its top and with air ducts extending from each end thereof, said air ducts having discharge openings along substantially their entire lengths.

It is another object of this invention to provide a high pressure air system for ducts extending from the unit proper and a low pressure air system for the air outlets in the top of the unit.

Further objects and features will appear as the specification preceeds to describe the invention with references to the accompanying drawing; in which- Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the apparatus.

Fig. 2 is an exploded top view of a section of the duct.

Fig. 3 is an exploded view in elevation of the duct.

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the duct taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is an exploded view of a duct and a right end Fig. 6 is an exploded view of a duct and a left end cap.

Fig. 7 is :a front elevation of the unit partly in section.

Fig. 8 is a sectional view taken on line 8-8 of Fig. 7.

Fig. 9 is a top plan view.

Referring now to Figure 1 of the drawings, numeral 10 indicates generally the unit casing. Ducts 12 and 14 are attached to the left and right ends respectively of the casing lit). Ducts 16 and 18 are connected to ducts 12 and 14 respectively. End cap 20 closes the end of duct 16 and end cap 22 closes the end of duct 18. The caps 20 and 22 may be fastened to their respective ducts in any suitable manner as by sheet metal screws. A support plate 24 has soft rubber sealing strips 26 and 28 adhesively attached thereto. An angle member 30 partly overlies support plate 24. Screws 32 hold the angle member 30 and the support plate 24 against the wall. As shown in Fig. 4, duct 18 has a downwardly extending flange 31 which engages behind angle member 30. A

Patented Feb. 1957 plurality of clips 33 engage support plate 24 and the duct is held in position by screws 35. Ducts 12, 14, 16, and 18 are all mounted against the wall in 'a similar manner. The ducts 12, 14, 16 and 18 have in their top walls two rows of staggered holes 34 for the discharge of air. The'holes 34 are of uniform size, and they are uniformly spaced throughout the length of the duct. The jets of air from holes 34 induce a how of secondary air from the room air. Some of the secondary air is induced from in front of the duct and some is induced from the space between the nozzles and the wall. Down draft from the windows is thus effectively prevented.

Referring now to Figure 7, the recirculated air enters the unit through inlet openings 36 and 38 and flows through dampers 40. Outdoor air enters through an inlet opening 41 in the back of the unit and flows through dampers 42. Outside air entering through opening 41 is prevented by partition 43 from blowing into the room through opening 36. Partition 43 also prevents mixing of the outside 'air and inside air upstream of the filter 44. After flowing through dampers 40 and 42, the two streams of air flow through filter. 44 and then through heating coil 46. The positions of dampers 40 and 42 are determined by controls which are old and well known in the art. Heating coil 46 is supplied with heating fluid such as steam or hot water and the flow is determined by controls which are old and well known in the art. It is thus seen that casing 10 provides a passageway for the flow of air from openings 36, 38 and 41 to discharge openings 84, 86 and 88 and to transitions 92 and 96.

Above the heating coil 46 are three fan housings 48, 50, and 52 having conventional air inlet openings 49, '51 and 53 respectively. A shaft 54 extends through all of the fan housings. Shaft 54 has a pulley 56 which is driven by belt 58 from the drive pulley of motor 60.

Fan housing 48 has a partition 62 dividing the housing into chambers 64 and 66. An impeller 68 is mounted on shaft 54 in chamber 64 and an impeller 70 is mounted on shaft 54 in chamber 66. Fan housing 52 has a partition 72 dividing the housing into a chamber 74 and 76. An impeller 78 is mounted on shaft 54 in chamber 74 and an impeller 80 is mounted on shaft 54 in chamber 76.

Fan housing 50 has an impeller 82 mounted on shaft 54. Impeller 82 discharges air through louvered discharge openings 84. Impeller 70 discharges air through louvered discharge openings 86 and impeller 78 discharges air through louvered discharge openings 88.

An elbow 90 conducts air from chamber 64 to transition 92 which is connected to duct 12. An elbow 94 conducts air from chamber 76 to transition 96 which is connected to duct 14.

Impellers 68 and 80 are of larger diameter than impellers 70, 78 and 82 because they must discharge through the openings 34 in ducts 12, 14, 1'6, and 18 and therefore they operate against -a higher total pressure than do impellers 7t), 78 and 82.

The temperature of the air discharged from the ducts decreases according to the distance from the unit. This is due to the loss of heat from the air to the duct and from the duct to the surrounding air. If the amount of air discharged from the ducts were uniform throughout the length of duct, the stream issuing at the ends of the duct remote from the unit would be less eifective in preventing downdrafts because of its lower temperature. However, I provide holes of substantially uniform size and spacing. I have found that this arrangement causes a discharge pattern such that the amount of air discharged per unit of length increases generally according to the distance from the unit. In this way the stream discharging from the ducts has a substantially uniform capacity to prevent downdraft.

reducing the total resistance against which fans 65 and 80 operate. This reduction in resistance permits a greater percentageof air to fiow through the ducts which of course is desirable because the ducts cover a greater length of wall.

While I have described the foregoing preferred embodiments of my invention, I contemplate that many changes may be made Without departing from the scope or spirit of my invention and I desire to be limited only by the claims.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for conditioning air comprising a casing having inlet openings and discharge openings, said casing having a passageway for the flow of air from said inlet openings to said discharge openings, a heat exchanger in said passageway, ducts extending from each end of said casing and in fluid communication with said passageway, said ducts each having a plurality of rows of uniformly and closely spaced upwardly directed air discharge orifices of substantially uniform size, the orifices in each row being staggered with relation to the orifices in an adjacent row and the distance between any two adjacent orifices in the same row being substantially equal to the maximum distance across an orifice, a shaft rotatably mounted in said casing between said heat exchanger and said discharge openings, means for driving said shaft, first fan impellers mounted on said shaft for moving air through said passageway from said inlet openings through said heat exchanger and through said discharge openings, and second fan impellers mounted on said shaft for moving air through said passageway from said inlet openings through said heat exchanger, and through said discharge orifices, said second fan impellers having a greater diameter than said first fan impellers, the second fan impeller and said staggered orifices in each duct maintaining a substantially pressurized condition in said duct and forming an upwardly directed substantially continuous air jet extending from one end of said rows of orifices to the other.

2. Apparatus for conditioning air comprising a casing having inlet openings and discharge openings, said casing having a passageway for the flow of air from said inlet openings to said discharge openings, 21 heat exchanger in said passageway, ducts extending from each end of said casing and in fluid communication with said passageway, said ducts each having a plurality of rows of uniformly and closely spaced upwardly directed air discharge openings of substantially uniform size, the orifices in each row being staggered with relation to the orifices in an adjacent row and the distance between any two adjacent orifices in the same row being substantially equal to the maximum distance across an orifice, fan housings in said casing downstream from said heat exchanger, said fan housings each having a partition forming two fan sections in each housing, an impeller in one section of each housing for moving air through said passageway from said inlet openings through said heat exchanger and through said discharge openings, and an impeller in the other section of each housing for moving air through said passageway from said inlet openings through said heat exchanger and through said ducts and said discharge orifices, said last mentioned impeller being larger than said first mentioned impeller, said larger impeller in each of said other sections and said staggered orifices in each duct maintaining a substantially pressurized condition in said duct and forming a substantially continuous air jet extending from one end of said rows of orifices to the other.

3. Apparatus for conditioning air comprising a casing having inlet openings and discharge openings, said casing having a passageway for the flow of air from said inlet openings to said discharge openings, a heat exchanger in said passageway, elongated ducts extending from each end of said casing and in fluid communication with said passageway, said ducts each having a plurality of rows of uniformly and closely spaced upwardly directed air discharge openings of substantially uniform size extending lengthwise thereof, the orifices in each row being staggered with relation to the orifices in an adjacent row and the distance between any two adjacent orifices in the same row being substantially equal to the maximum distance across an orifice, fan housings in said casing downstream from said heat exchanger, said fan housings each having a partition forming two fan sections in each housing, an impeller in one section of each housing for moving air through said passageway from said inlet openings through said heat exchanger and through said discharge openings, and an impeller in the other section of each housing for moving air through said passageway from said inlet openings through said heat exchanger and through said ducts and said discharge orifices, said last mentioned impeller being larger than said first mentioned impeller, said larger impeller in each of said other sections and said staggered orifices in each duct maintaining a substantially pressurized condition in said duct and forming a substantially continuous air jet extending from one end of said rows of orifices to the other, said impellers being mounted on a single shaft, means for driving said shaft, said means being located outside of said passageway where it is protected from the heated air flowing through said passageway.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 40,982 Nobles Dec. 15, 1863 887,908 Barby May 19, 1908 1,228,931 Kirk June 5, 1917 1,719,659 Hopkins July 2, 1929 1,778,732 Seelert Oct. 1, 1930 2,048,017 McElvain July 21, 1936 2,127,985 Philpott Aug. 23, 1938 2,235,500 Kitchen Mar. 18, 1941 2,567,789 Sawyer Sept. 11, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 5,969 Great Britain 1894 

